Carte Blanche: The Paradox of Hedonism

Carte Blanche: The Paradox of Hedonism Chapter 5

Caligula wore a bandana over her head, pulling her mane back so as to keep little strands of hair away from her face. She lay bent over the patio to Master Nyeusi’s house, holding a brush in her mouth and carefully scrubbing the stones for any dirt or grime that remained after the master’s party. Food had been dropped, a drink spilled here and there, and some zebras managed to kick up some dirt onto the patio itself when they went walking into the garden. Nevermind the mess that was left behind inside of the house, outside looked as if some sort of riot erupted during the night.

With the beating Zebrican sun on her back and with how large the patio actually was, Caligula’s coat was soaked in her own sweat after having scrubbed for several hours. She looked up from her task over to where Jade sat, also bent over and scrubbing the patio with her. The little zebra filly smiled and waved over at Caligula, who waved back with a small smile of her own.

“The sun doesn’t make our job easy,” Jade said. She looked as sweaty and as tired as Caligula did.

“No, it really doesn’t,” Caligula said with a shake of her head. “You’d think that after scrubbing out here for so long that we’d become used to the heat.”

Jade giggled. “Oh come on, Cally, you’ve onl-”

“Did you just call me Cally?”

“Yes, I’m going to call you Cally.”

Caligula sat up and dropped her brush into a bucket of soapy water next to her. “Why Cally of all names?”

“It’s cute and I think it suits you well,” Jade replied, eyeing Caligula up and down. “Yup, it definitely suits you.”

Caligula groaned and crossed her forehooves over her chest. “Well, if you’re going to be calling me Cally, then I’m going to be calling you… calling you…” Her eyes slowly fell to the floor as she sat thinking of a good nickname for Jade.

“Can’t think of anything?” Jade asked with a sly smile.

“Hey, give me a second! I’ll think of something.”

Jade giggled again and went back to scrubbing. “Anyways, you’ve only been here for a couple of days and you’ve managed to scrub more of the patio than I have.”

“That’s only because you came late,” Caligula interjected, scrubbing the patio again as well.

“I was feeding Master Nyeusi’s birds!” Jade said. “And that’s not even my point. I’ve seen ponies come here and pass out from the heat way earlier than you. The heat here isn’t very forgiving and for most it’s way too much to handle.”

“I guess you could say that I’ve had experience with heat,” Caligula said. She scrubbed a particular nasty looking stain on the patio, slowly wiping the crust and discoloration away with each stroke of her brush.

“Why do you say that?” Jade asked, looking up from her scrubbing and glancing over at Caligula.

“Well, where I’m from our summers get to be pretty hot,” Caligula said. “Not as hot as here, but with the humidity that we get in southern Equestria it feels like we’re getting cooked alive some days.”

“You’re from southern Equestria? What’s it like there?”

“It’s beautiful. I mean, I haven’t seen much of the world, but I just know for a fact it’s beautiful.”

“Beautiful like… like forests and animals and weather beautiful?”

Caligula giggled. “Sort of. There was a little bit more to it than that, though.”

“Oh, oh!” Jade squeed. “Tell me about it.”

Caligula paused her scrubbing, staring at the floor for a moment. “There’s a lot to talk about, I suppose.” She sat up again and dropped her brush into the bucket. “I lived in a little town called Stableside that was near the southeastern-most tip of Equestria. There weren’t very many ponies there, but… but maybe that was a good thing? Everypony knew each other for the most part, so if something happened in town everypony knew within an hour.”

She glanced over at Jade and saw that the zebra filly had stopped scrubbing, although the brush still remained in her mouth. “Imagine a town full of dark wooden houses with red tiled roofs, all of which sloped downwards at the same angle and were connected together in long rows. Most houses would have their shutters open, curtains flying out of the windows whenever a breeze picked up as if the houses themselves waved to you. You’d want to wave back, but then you thought of how silly you would look at waving to something like a house.

“Nonetheless, with curtains flying in the sea air all around you, you’d walk down wide streets paved with brick roads and limestone sidewalks. Carts passed you as they traveled along the roads at a…” Caligula scrunched her nose up. “...a leshurly pace, ponies pulling or sitting in the carts and waving at you as they drove by. You’d wave back—you couldn’t help yourself—and maybe you’d be wondering what they might be doing that afternoon.

“Then you’d walk beyond the town’s limits and be met with a pretty dense forest. Colorful birds fly around your head, and small squirrels or chipmunks run up the trees or through the bushes as you walk past. Singing and chittering and the clip clop of your hooves leaves you with a melody unlike anything you could find in a theater ready for a music concert that night. So unique and beautiful that you feel like you have been drawn into painting worthy to be hung up somewhere in the halls of the castle back in Canterlot. Something that you only hear in the fairy tales that your mom or dad read to you before you went to sleep.

“And then you travel further, breaking the edge of the forest and meeting the beaches of the Eternal Sea. Sand stretches out for miles in either direction, disappearing into the horizon just as the sea itself disappears, almost as if you could see the very edge of the world. The breeze was stronger here, running through your mane and your tail. You felt alive, as if you were galloping for first place in a race or riding a wagon down the tallest hill that you could find.

“But the picture wasn’t complete until you saw the sunset.” Caligula looked down at her hooves and sighed. “Reds and pinks and oranges and yellows, all mixed together in a panorama that took your breath away. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, late one day on one of the beaches. You would sit there and stare at the sky until the last bits of the sunset disappeared, and all you’d be left with are the twinkling stars of the night shining overhead.”

A light breeze picked up, rustling both Caligula’s and Jade’s manes. Caligula’s ear twitched when she heard Jade drop her brush into the bucket, and she looked up just as the zebra sat down in front of her. Jade’s expression was soft and warm, a small smile pursed on her lips and her eyes brighter than ever.

“What you just told me, Cally,” Jade said, “it was beautiful.”

“It’s where I lived for my entire life,” Caligula said. “It’s all that I really knew and… and I loved it.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Jade added. “What you described is something that is terribly important to you, perhaps one of the most important memories that you hold close to your heart. It’s… it’s not really the place that you lived or that you grew up, it’s your home.”

“Do you think I’ll ever be able to go back?”

Jade looked side to side, to the orchards and then to the house. When she turned back to Caligula, she nodded her head vigorously, her large mane flopping around.

“If you keep that bit of hope in your heart,” Jade said as she poked Caligula in the chest, “and that memory close to you, one day I’m sure that you’ll find your way back. A place like this and a pony like Master Nyeusi can’t keep you cooped up forever.”

Caligula smiled and gave Jade a hug, the zebra filly jumping in surprise before she hugged her back.

“What’s this?” a voice asked off in the direction of the house. “The blank flank and the runt slacking off on the job when they should have the patio cleaned before sun down? Oh, Mistress Sandra won’t like this one bit.”

Caligula and Jade quickly released each other from their hug, backing away and turning to face whomever was speaking to them. At the door leading inside of the house stood two zebra mares and a pegasus mare, all of which wore the tail wraps and manacles of slaves. The one that stood at their head, a tall zebra mare with copper piercings on her eyebrows and ears, stood smirking at the two fillies. She then stepped forward, walking closer.

“I can only imagine what kind of punishment that Mistress Sandra will have for you two,” she added. “Only your third day here at the Red Sun House and you’ve already been caught, blank flank? You’re not off to a good start.”

“Leave her alone, Sori,” Jade growled.

Sori chuckled. “Why? What’s it to you if the blank flank gets a little reminding to do her job?”

Jade stepped in front of Caligula, who already lay cowering against the stone patio. She had her tail wrapped around her hooves and her eyes fixated on Sori.

“I said leave her alone.” Jade said, her voice cracking. “Don’t you have your own jobs to do?”

“Well, yes,” Sori with a shrug, “but what does it matter if I report a few ponies slacking off on the job? I’ll get a waiver, maybe even a decent meal if Mistress Sandra finds the issue dire enough, and you two will be left with your food privileges revoked for a few days.”

“Come on, Sori, Cally just got here. She’s not used to working like this or being in this kind of place. At least I have two years of experience, and you even more s-”

Sori stomped her hoof and growled at Jade. “Shut up, you fucking runt! I don’t care about her, she’s going to live the easy life anyways when she gets older. With a shake of her flank and a whip of her mane she’ll have all of the damn nobles fawning over her and you know it.”

“How do you know that?” Jade asked, backing up until she felt her hind hoof bump into Caligula’s side. “How do you know if she’ll be that type of pony? You don’t even know her.”

“All blank flanks are the same,” Sori said, her glare drifting from Jade to Caligula. “They know they’re important and they use it to their advantage. They won’t care about ponies like you once they step onto that dance floor and hear the cheers from their viewers. She may not be like that yet, but just you wait. When she’s older and pretty, you’re just going to be another slave at the bottom of the pile.”

“I… I wouldn’t ever do that…” Caligula piped up with a voice barely above a whisper.

Sori laughed, one of her forehooves stomping against stone floor. The zebra and pony behind her laughed as well, although it was forced.

“Oh, look at you!” Sori exclaimed. “You can tell jokes, too. You’re going to be a really hit with the nobles. Who knows, maybe Master Nyeusi will sell you and get rid of your stupid flank if one of those idiot nobles offers enough money for you.” She saw the look of hurt across Caligula’s face and smiled wider. “Oh yes, that’s right, Master Nyeusi might want to sell you for more money. Doesn’t that just tear you up inside, knowing that even though you might the most important slave of this house, you can still be sold like a dumb animal?”

Jade looked behind her and saw Caligula’s eyes watering up. She faced Sori again with her face scrunched up into a pout and her face turning a slight shade of red.

“Leave now, Sori,” Jade said coldly. “You’ve had your fun.”

“You’ve had plenty of opportunities to get back to work,” Sori chided. “You could have ignored me. Who knows, you might have even finished by now, but no, you felt the need to get involved with this little initiation here.” She turned and flicked her tail at the two fillies. “I did have half a mind to let you two off of the hook with Mistress Sandra, but now… well, you know. Good luck.”

Jade watched Sori walk back towards the doors to the house, sensing an air about the zebra like she wasn’t finished. She looked back at Caligula again and saw that she was still on the verge of tears. Her heart twisted up. Caligula didn’t deserve this kind of treatment, not today.

“Wait, Sori,” Jade said begrudgingly. “Is… is there anyway that we could convince you to not tell Mistress Sandra?”

Sori stopped and looked back. “You’re willing to strike a deal, are you? Oh wow, that’s just not like you at all.” She snickered and nodded at the pegasus and other zebra, who turned and went back inside. “Well, there is one thing. You see, the three of us are feeling impeccably tired today, so we were hoping to find some way to take the rest of the day off. Since you are so… willingly volunteering yourself, how about both you and the blank flank finish up the rest of our jobs, hm?”

Jade cringed and looked down at the floor.

“Y-yeah, we’ll do them for you,” she said.

“Good!” Sori exclaimed. “Now then, after you’re finished with the patio, you’re going to need to trim the front hedge, move potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and parsley from the basement up to the kitchens, and light the window sill candles on the third floor of the house. Think you can handle that?”

Caligula nodded her head while Jade grumbled something inaudible to herself. Sori straightened herself out and glared at the two fillies.

“Don’t forget what happens if you fail to do any of those chores,” Sori reminded, then turned and trotted back into the house.

Once Sori was inside, Caligula carefully got back onto her hooves and wiped her nose with a sniffle. From the corner of her eye she saw Jade pacing back and forth in front of her bucket of soapy water, muttering to herself. She felt cold all of a sudden, even with the sun still in the sky.

“J-jade, how are we going to finish all of those chores before sundown?” Caligula asked.

Jade didn’t answer, instead still pacing in front of her bucket. Caligula sighed.The zebra filly looked angry or frustrated, her snout scrunched up and her brows furrowed into a pout.

“Jade, are you there?” Still no answer aside from the mumbling. “Jade, come on, we need to hurry up and finish the patio.”

Jade hopped into the air, her eyes shooting open as wide as they could possibly go. She landed back onto the stone patio with a clip-clop of her hooves and turned to Caligula, who stared at her quizzically.

“I’ve got an idea, Cally,” Jade said.

“Jade… you heard what Sori said,” Caligula said. “If we don’t finish these chores, she’s going to tell Mistress Sandra about us not doing our jobs.”

“Don’t worry about Mistress Sandra for now, I think I know a way that we can get back at Sori and avoid doing those three’s jobs at the same time.”

Caligula’s ears perked, clearly interested, but she still searched Jade’s eyes, unsure of her intentions.

“How do you think we’ll manage that?” Caligula asked. “If Sori finds out that we aren’t doing any of our jobs, she’s going to go straight to Mistress Sandra and tell her about us.”

“Then we’re just going to have to be fast,” Jade answered, smiling. “Come on, I’ll explain while we finish up cleaning the patio.”

~~~

Sori lay in her bed all covered up and comfortable under a pile of blankets. With Caligula and Jade off doing the rest of her chores for her, she now had the extra time to kick back and relax with her hooves up. Her bones and muscles felt as if they were releasing pound after pound of pressure as she sunk lower into the stiff slave’s bed, sending shivers up and down along her spine and a causing her to release a little sigh.

“I was surprised that the zebra runt cut a deal with you, Sori,” the pegasus asked from the bed next to her’s.

“I was surprised, too,” Sori replied, digging herself deeper into the bed. “That filly always takes Mistress Sandra’s punishments over doing anything for us. Just to spite us. Making that deal with her… It was unusual.”

“Maybe she’s looking out for the blank flank?” the pegasus suggested?

Sori shook her and growled. “If she is then she is a fool. The blank flank’s not going to care what happens to her once she’s picked to start taking those dance lessons. She may be the only other filly among the slaves in this house, but that’s really striking me as desperate.”

“The blank flank did look sincere with her words,” the pegasus observed.

“Of course she did,” Sori said. “She just got here. She has no idea what kind of world she’s been thrown into, let alone what is expected of her within the coming years. I’d like to feel sorry for a pony like her, but then again all blank flanks turn into haughty cunts who sit on their high…” Sori stopped and rolled her eyes. “You get what I mean.”

The pegasus snorted and opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut short when the door to the slave quarters slammed open. Both the pegasus and Sori lifted their heads to see who it was. Jade stood in the doorway out of breath and looking around the entire slave’s quarters. Only Sori and the pegasus sat in there.

“Sori, you have to come quick,” Jade said after taking a deep breath. “Somepony’s been hurt over in the south halls and we need help getting them to the clinic.”

Sori groaned and rolled over onto her stomach. “There are plenty of slaves in this house. Why couldn’t you go find one of them?”

“They’re all busy!” Jade protested with a stomp of her hoof. “Come on, Sori, Cally and I can’t do this by ourselves.”

Sori rolled out of bed and stretched. “Fine, but if I find out that this is some kind of trick of yours…”

Jade had already ran off, forcing Sori to break into a brisk trot to keep up with the little zebra filly. They wound their way through the halls, passing by the stairs that led up to the higher floors of the house where the guests and family stayed. A massive chandelier hung in the very center of the room, the candles being lit by one of the pegasus slaves. The candles on that chandelier totalled over two hundred, Sori knew, allowing for the light fixture to illuminate every bit of the massive hall that marked the entrance of the house.

They then passed through the pool room, which housed a multitude of different pools full of a variety of fish. Salt water fish, fresh water fish, eels, stingrays, and then a whole bunch of much smaller fish. The air smelt fresh and salty in here and Sori nearly stopped herself so that she may be able to take a moment to take in the beauty of the room.

Jade led the two of them on, however, and finally they came to the entrance to the southern halls of the house. Jade bounded through a crack in the doors leading in the halls that was just small enough for a filly to fit through. Sori stopped at the door and rolled her eyes, and then began to put her shoulder to work as she pushed the heavy door open further to allow her through.

To Sori’s misfortune, however, her attempts to open the door were met with a tidal wave of water as a bucket of water sitting at the top of the door tipped and landed right on her head. Now blinded by the bucket, Sori came barreling into the hall and tripped over her hooves, slamming into the ground on her face.

“Jade! Get back here you little runt!” Sori shouted, her voice muffled by the bucket. She attempted to pull the bucket off of her head, pushing her hind hooves against the rim of the bucket with all of her might.

Jade hopped from her hiding place behind the massive door with a cat o nine tails in her mouth. She wasn’t quite sure what this was used for, but upon closer inspection she had noticed that using the floppy end against a pony’s skin might sting a little. She looked over at Caligula who sat on top of a ledge next to a box of bricks. The filly unicorn waved to Jade and nodded her head.

Gripping the cat o nine tails in her mouth tighter, Jade whipped the tails across Sori’s flank, who yelped and immediately jumped to her hooves. With the bucket still on her head, she sprinted forward and right in a potted plant that stood in the center of the hall. Both Sori and the plant tumbled over, the pot breaking and Sori skidding to a stop a few meters beyond the crash. Her tail lay perfectly encircled in a rope.

Seeing her chance, Caligula pushed the box of bricks over the side of the ledge, leading to the rope catching around Sori’s tail and hoisting the zebra high into the air. She hung there, flailing about with the bucket still on her head.

Jade smiled and hopped up to Caligula’s position on the ledge. She held out a hoof, to which Caligula bumped it with her own hoof and they giggled.

“That couldn’t have gone more perfectly,” Jade said, watching as Sori went about trying to pull the bucket off of her head again.

“I will get you two fillies for this!” Sori shouted from the bucket. “I swear, when I’m getting down from here you two are going to be seeing Mistress Sandra’s whipping board.”

Jade opened her mouth, but Caligula quickly stuffed her hoof in and shook her head.

“Shh, I think I hear guards coming,” Caligula said, hunkering down on top of the ledge. “They must have heard the noise.”

Jade hunkered down next to Caligula and together they looked over at the door that Jade led Sori through. Within moment a pair of zebras in light armor stepped through the door and looked at the sight before them. They stood in a puddle of water, and directly in front of them hung Sori who had a bucket stuck to her head, a cat o nine tails lying directly underneath her and a broken potted plant all over the floor. They both looked at each other for a moment, then slowly strode towards Sori.

After having struggled with the bucket enough, Sori finally managed to push it from her head. It fell to the floor with a clang, then continued to roll until it stopped haphazardly at both of the guards’ hooves. Sori slowly looked up, terror etching onto her face as she realized what sort of predicament she was in right now.

“No,” Sori said, shaking her head. “No no no, I didn’t do this! Those fillies did this! They led me in here.”

One of the guards narrowed his eyes and drew a dagger.

“That’s a good one,” he said. “I thought you were more clever than this. In fact, I thought you were the most clever out of all of the slaves.”

“But it’s the truth!” Sori protested. “Those fillies set me up! They were slacking off you know, and I caught the-”

Sori was interrupted when the guard slashed through the rope keeping the zebra suspended in the air. She fell to the floor with a thud, to which she was then hoisted up onto her hooves and dragged across the floor to the door.

“Tell it to Mistress Sandra,” the guard said. “I’m sure she’ll be more inclined to hear your stories than us. She looks the type.”

“No, please, they are around here somewhere!” Sori shouted, her head twisting around the room in search of the fillies. “They have to be in here somewhere!”

The guards dragged Sori the rest of the way out of the hall, kicking and screaming against their powerful hooves. The door slammed shut, and Jade jumped up from her spot and snickered.

“That really showed Sori, now, didn’t it, Cally?” Jade said, rubbing her hooves together.

“Jade, I don’t think that this was a good idea,” Caligula said, slowly getting to her hooves as well and staring at the door. “What do you think will happen to her?”

“Who knows,” Jade said with a shrug. “It’s not like she’s going to get a severe punishment for anything that she did here. She is Sori after all, and Mistress Sandra likes her more than anypony else I think.”

Caligula shook her head and sighed. “I know she probably deserved it, but… I don’t know, it didn’t seem right after how I saw the guards drag her away like that.”

Jade’s smile faded. “Cally, this wasn’t her first time being mean to other ponies so that she could get what she wants.”

Caligula looked at Jade. “Does it have something to do with how surprised she was that you agreed to her deal.”

“Sort of,” Jade said, nodding her head. “I… usually don’t give in to Sori trying to make demands at me. I usually take the punishments from Mistress Sandra.” She saw Caligula’s face scrunch up. “No, don’t give me that look, Cally. She’s trying to bully ponies and stuff. She’s mean and angry and… I guess a lot of other slaves are, too, but at least they look after each other when it comes to the guards. She’s more of a suck up.”

“Why did you never try to get her back?”

“Nopony wanted, too. Nopony really likes Sori around here, but they’re afraid that if they get involved with me that they’ll just keep getting punishments from Mistress Sandra. That or they don’t like me since I’m a filly. Fillies can’t really do the harder chores around here.”

“Well, I’m glad that I could help,” Caligula said, smiling a little, “even if I do have mixed feelings about the whole thing. You helped me, so... I know that Sori’s mean, but I don’t want to seem mean, too.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jade said. “Hey, how about this. We’ll just do our best to stay out of trouble and keep to ourselves, how does that sound?”

Caligula smiled wider. “I think I like it. It’ll be just you and me against everypony else.”

Jade scooted closer to Caligula, but before she could say anything more her ears perked up from the sound of hooves approaching through the door that Sori was dragged out of. She hopped off from the ledge and waved her hoof up to Caligula.

“Come on, we need to get out of here before the clean up crew arrives,” Jade whispered.

Caligula hopped down after Jade, and together the two fillies galloped through the door on the other side of the hall.